


Lost and Found

by Lunarium



Category: Year in Hereafter (Webcomic)
Genre: Brothers, Family Feels, Gen, Memories, Reunions, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-16 07:27:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13049337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Veeti recounts his life with Sakari, a brother and friend he had lost and found.





	Lost and Found

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yuuago](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuuago/gifts).



The foggy window beside him obscured the outside. Lights turned into fuzzy blurs, and the moon sheathed from view. Inside was almost stiffing warm. They had come here all bundled up in preparation for the oncoming snow. No matter how cold and bad it will get out there in a couple hours, the effort to come here would be well worth it. 

If Veeti could concentrate on the—date was too frivolous a word to use—an outing with his new friend (that word too felt odd on his tongue—too soon, too early.) A couple times he had felt as though his vision was leaving him. They always took place well into the night, in the dark as he studied the ceiling of his new bed. Perhaps it was just from being tired, perhaps he had overtaxed his eyes from reading all the books lining Jaakko’s bed with minimal lighting, but he didn’t want to lose his eyesight, not before getting the chance to see Sakari again. 

“Ten lumps of sugar, mate?” Jaakko’s grinning face averted Veeti’s attention back to the present. His smile was tiny but appreciative as he gave the nod. The manner in how he liked his coffee had become something famous in this cafe, and Jaakko more than memorized it by now. Instead of the relentless teasing he would have expected from Sakari or chiding from Inkeri for his sweet tooth, Jaakko complied with his wishes with nothing more than an impish grin. He settled himself before Veeti with his own cup. 

“Lady there gave us some biscuits, for the dipping!” Jaakko said cheerfully. Veeti turned his head to where Jaakko was vaguely motioning, gave a nod, and grabbed a piece. 

“Say, what’s it like having a brother?” Jaakko asked after a long while. “Was he older, or you? He never talked much about his family.” 

“He was. Is.” 

“Did you get along?” 

Smiling, Veeti pulled the cup towards himself. “We were the best of friends.”

~*~

The hooting from some nearby owl mingled with the crackling of the campfire. Little Veeti shivered and gathered the blanket tighter around himself. The evening was drawing cooler with a series of little clouds forming before his mouth at every exhale. That was cool, he thought. Like an ice-breathing dragon.

A snicker averted his attention to the right, where Sakari was sitting and staring at him. 

“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “You’d make a great little dragon.” 

“I won’t be little forever,” Veeti pouted. 

“I know you won’t. Hey, want to see what Mom’s been teaching me?” 

He slid off the log and inched closer to the campfire. He grinned up at Veeti before stretching out a hand high above the flames. At first nothing happened, but then a tiny flicker of flame drew out from the campfire and curled into an invisible ball under his palm. Without it ever touching his skin, the flame whirled as he scooted back towards Veeti. 

“At first the universe was made of gases and fire,” he said as a gust of wind picked up around them. Veeti leaned close, anticipating seeing the wind catch in the whirling sphere in his brother’s hand, and sure enough, a gust of wind swept into the swirl, joining foaming grey with glowing red. 

“And from these gases and fires, planets formed into shape,” Sakari continued. His other hand joined the first palm. He lowered his hands, fanning them out slowly as he reached the ground. The swirling sphere still spun without support, now caught with a hand on either side. Now inches above the ground, dry soil shot from the ground below, great chunks and tiny debris and even a few blades of grass still minty green despite the season, and were swept into the sphere. Soon a third wheel spun amongst them, spinning in shades of brown and green. 

“Volcanos formed, erupted, but soon the ground encased fire into its core. And wind blew high above. Moisture came. And that…is how we got water.” 

One hand resumed supporting the sphere while the other fetched the water bottle hanging from his hip. Unscrewing the top, he brought the mouth close to the sphere, and a gush drew out as if being sucked out by an invisible straw. Veeti gasped as it was drawn into the sphere, glowing blue amidst the other colors. Soon the red was swept under the earth and the water seeped between the earth in rivers. The wind whooshed past as clouds throughout the sphere. 

“And that was how our world was born,” Sakari concluded. 

Veeti gasped again and applauded. “Think she’ll teach me how to do that?” 

“Once you get my age. And if your magic is anything like mine!”

~*~

“My magic wasn’t like his, but by then it didn’t matter that I couldn’t do that he could. As I grew up and learned more magic, I began joining him and Grandma at their work. At the swamp. Sometimes it was just me and him. Sometimes us and Inkeri. We were inseparable. We explored the forest. We goofed off. We got serious when the situation got serious.” Veeti’s small smile slowly faded behind the rising steam from his cup. “And then Sakari met him.”

“Who’s _him_? A lover?” 

“No, a friend. But it didn’t matter. Friend or lover, they began spending so much time together that he didn’t have much time for me. Sometimes it was because he didn’t invite me. Other times I was so angry just seeing the other man around that I refused to join them. In the end, Johannes took my brother from me.” 

“But you’re family! How’s that possible?” 

A corner of Veeti’s lips turned upwards in a humorless smile.

~*~

“I’m taking Johannes to see the swamp!” Sakari announced as he bounced into their room, rummaging for some things for the trip. “It’s going to be fun! Want to tag along?”

“No,” Veeti replied flatly. “You go ahead with your _friend_.” 

“You sure? Inkeri is joining us. This will be the first time she spends time with Johannes. I think the two are really getting along already. You might like him too.” 

Veeti got to his feet. “No. You go on ahead.” 

Sakari frowned. “Everything okay, Veeti?” 

It took effort just to turn around and face him. Having gotten what he needed, Sakari was standing by the door, but his eyes glowed with mild concern. Veeti kept his face impassive. 

“You go on ahead and be with your _friend_ ,” he finally said and shut the door in Sakari’s face.

~*~

“What do you mean? Where did he go?” Veeti demanded for the hundredth time.

“Veeti, I’m sorry,” Inkeri wept. She gripped his wrists as means of comforting him, and as a means of keeping herself upright, her legs shaking as badly as they were. “There was an accident. Sakari is gone.” 

He stormed out without another word, heeding no one’s command for him to stay back. He located the swamp, his feet finding their way like the flow of a river. How often Sakari and he had come by here for their family duty. How often they sat about and spoke, their voices filling the dead silence with warm conversation and the occasional laughter.

The ringing silence pressed against his ears. The swamp lay tranquil, mockingly, hiding its crimes from him. 

“Give him back!” Veeti’s cries reverberated throughout the forest, rattling the crisp leaves and shaking the branches off their hinges. Every inch of the growing wind grew heavy with his anger and grief. “Bring him back, you bastard!”

~*~

Inkeri did not blame Johannes the same way Veeti had. The grief of loss had solidified a union between the two. Gave them something to have in common. Love grew between them. Secured the damn Johannes in the family, much to Veeti’s disgust.

Veeti scoffed at the very idea of them, and of the idea of friendship. Sakari was both. His best friend. He couldn’t find a friendship in anyone else. Family and their duty was all he knew. If he grew lax in his duties, he would be putting down Sakari. He couldn’t do that for his only friend.

~*~

“You will not find him in this way.” Sampo’s reprimand was not unkind. The first time Veeti stepped into the spirit realm, he was almost disappointed that the guide who drew to his call was his uncle. But a friendly companion was much appreciated, especially one within the family, to confide in even, as speaking with his own remaining siblings became too painful. Inkeri and Harri had wept and grieved and then moved on. Veeti hadn’t. Refused to.

Veeti didn’t turn back. His tired legs took him deeper into the forest. 

“Where did you take him, Hiidenkirnu? Where have you dragged my brother to?” 

Sampo’s heavy sigh carried through the cold wind. “He’s not here, nephew. I would have let you know.”

~*~

“How could you think of doing that?”

Inkeri’s face softened into a frown. “It would be honoring our brother, Veeti.” 

Veeti sighed and turned away. “It would be like trying to replace him.” 

“How? He is my twin, and—”

“And that’s Johannes child! _No!_ ”

~*~

Twelve years later, and another Lapintaival accompanied a Harmonsuo to the swamps. This time they weren’t college buddies or any of that nonsense. It was Mikael, or Mika, Johannes’s younger half-brother, and he had offered to go to Hiidenkirnu’s lake with Veeti on the pretense that he was great at fishing. Inkeri had hoped the trip would suck out all interest of the swamp and the strange tales surrounding it out of Mika.

Yet as the day drew on, Veeti couldn’t help note the similarity. Different pair of boys, same families. Same mission. 

Same fate.

~*~

“And now you’re telling me he’s here, in Kalevala,” Veeti finished.

Done with their drinks, they left the shop and were heading back towards Rautiola. Their feet dragged across a thick blanket of snow, and more kept falling. Most of the inhabitants of Valkeala the capital had already retreated back to their homes by this time, so it was odd to see anyone languishing outside when they passed the gates of Rautiola. 

Until Veeti took a closer look. 

“I know that hair from anywhere,” Veeti said. Even knowing he was here, seeing the long hair tied in a low ponytail was still such a jolt that he stopped dead in his tracks. 

Sakari turned around and grinned. 

“Veeti!” 

“Sakari!” 

Before he knew it arms were wrapped around one another. Did he lung at Sakari or did Sakari run towards him? Perhaps they both went for a pounce. It was all a blur. 

“So nice to hold you while you’re awake!” Sakari cried out, laughing with the tiniest crack meant to hide the tears. 

“Jerk!” Veeti laughed. 

He almost couldn’t believe it. He needed to feel the warm cheek against his, get lost in his body heat, warmth encased away from the falling snow, and verify for himself over and over again that his brother was alive, alive, _alive_. 

_As alive as he could be_ , a tiny voice said in the back of his head. _He’s been lost to you for twelve years, living in Kalevala._

He squeezed his arms around his brother, silencing the voice. It didn’t matter where Sakari was or what this reality was in relation to the home they had left. They would find their way back. Somehow. 

“I suppose all talk of what Ieva and Little Mika and I saw out there will have to wait,” Sakari said. 

“Yes,” Veeti said. “You owe me twelve years of hugs and pranks and all the rude jokes.” 

Sakari grinned over his head. “Taking you up on that offer!”

~*~

Jaakko sniffled and wiped a tear away.

“I never had brothers or sisters of my own,” he told Mika as they watched the two’s reunion. “This’s nice.” He studied the unruly red hair and smiled. “Hey, you could be mine!” 

“Your what?” Mika asked, a little terrified of the answer. 

“Family!” 

And before Mika could jump back, Jaakko had swept him up into a tight hug. It wasn’t anything like a Johannes hug, but he supposed he was now an honorary brother. Cheesy as this was, after the journey up north, this was fine.


End file.
